Shake It Out
by KiariKyoKiba
Summary: AU. Hayley's still pregnant with a miracle baby but Klaus isn't the Father. Only Klaus still finds himself wrapped up with protecting the child and Hayley while plotting the end of Marcel's Reign. Meanwhile the return of two familiar figures from Klaus's past brings secrets that shake the Mikealson Family to their core.
1. Chapter 1

**And so, another story, but for those that are wondering if i'll be going on Hiatus, fear not! I do, in fact have several chapters already typed up I just need to write more, re-read them and then upload. Hopefully this time my Writing will go better than the last few I've done.**

 **Hopefully you'll like it and tell me what you think. Thanks.**

 **The Originals**

Niklaus Mikealson's eyes scanned the paper he held in his hands, the elegant looking words echoed in his head sounding like the writer and he had the suspicion she wanted it too. After all, he had spent 500 years hunting her down, she no doubt wanted to leave an impression that he wouldn't forget all too soon.

 _Klaus, I hear Elijah has refused you the cure and in return, you have refused me my freedom. Shame on you both. But while you boys sort out your problems, I have one last thing to offer you. I've caught wind that there is a witch in New Orleans named Jane-Anne Deveraux plotting a move against you. Hunt her down. What she has to say will rattle you so deeply to your core that chasing little old me will be the least of your concerns. It's been a fun five centuries, Klaus, but I've worn down too many good heels running from you. Love and hate, Katerina._

It was her style, witty, smart and filled with the contempt she held for him. Klaus smirked, as he placed the letter back down on the table, the wax seal face up showing the 'K'.

It looked like he would have to plan a trip to New Orleans. Katherine for all she was slippery and untrustworthy at the best of times wouldn't give him a false lead at a time like this, not when she was viewing this tip as a way to earn her freedom. Idly he wonders what he should, what the weather will be like and if he should inquire any more about it, he hadn't been there in a while. Over a hundred years now to be precise if he were to count.

* * *

A brunette haired woman sat at the bar and sighed as she glanced around, her eyes scanning the regulars and searching for something that spoke out to her. **"** Third time in here this week, **"** the bartender, another brunette, said as she turned to face the one sitting at the bar.

"I'm obsessed with the gumbo, Jane-Anne." The woman said not answering the unspoken posed to her but instead deflecting it. The woman was right though, the brunette had been in the Restaurant three times this week already, she was sure she had even met all the staff but this point. Jane-Anne smiled and moved her hand under the counter and for a second the other tenses before relaxing when a familiar black bottle is pulled into her sights.

"You know, ladies in the 9th ward say my sister, Sophie," Jane-Anne eyes glanced towards the back where the brunette imagines her sister, Sophie, is leaning over a pan cooking, as she poured the liquid from the bottle into the glass she had placed in from of the brunette as soon as she had saw her, "bleeds a piece of her soul into every dish."

"I asked," the woman said as she moved a arm in front of her and looked straight at the bartender, "around the Quarter about my family..." She'd been searching for days now, ever since she had arrived after being told by someone she knew that her Biological family was descended from the Werewolves that had roamed New Orleans.

"And?" Jane-Anne asked not looking up from what she was doing having set the bottle down when the other had asked the question. She looked up and tilted her head, her hands still moving as she listened carefully.

The woman on the other side of the bar shrugged. "Nothing. Zero." Her hair shook as she moved her head slightly from side to side. "I can't find a single person who remembers them." She could have asked a hundred people by this point, she didn't know, hadn't counted but they had all answered the same way; "Sorry, I don't know who they are."

The repeated line, through various ways, had confused her. The person who had told her that her family was from New Orleans had had proof, had shown her pictures of Werewolves with similar Birthmarks, yet when she arrived she had found silence and dead ends wherever she looked. She knows the male wouldn't have lied, it wasn't his forte nor had she been able to decide if in the months she had spent with him if he's lied to her before. Besides, if he had lied to her about this it was an oddly specific thing to lie about.

Jane-Anne leaned closer, "Because, Hayley, people like _you_ were run out of here years ago."

Hayley paused before blinking, her eyes narrowing at the bartender. What did the woman mean? Had she caught on to the fact Hayley wasn't Human? If so, how had she? The answer comes to her a second later, of course the other would know, Hayley had asked her about her family, stated their names and what little else she knew of them, Jane-Anne must have placed one and one together and gotten two. Simple. Nothing to get worried about. "What do you mean, _people like me_?" She can't help the defensive way it comes out.

Jane-Anne made a noise as she turned and walked around the bar, her eye meeting the gaze of her sister, who had looked up towards them. Her hand moves under counter to grab a large cream paper before turning towards Hayley and placing it onto the Bar. She began to talk as she held up a pen and Hayley leans forward as she continued to listen, perhaps now the entire situation would be explained and she wouldn't be going of Chinese Whispers.

"In the bayou, they call the werewolves "Roux-Ga-Roux." Jane-Anne's hand moved as she circled a small area on the map. She folds it up and hands it to Hayley. "You head out there, you'll find what you're looking for." Hayley stared at the folded up map, questioning what she had been given before standing up with it in her hands. "Be careful. It's the last place you'd ever want to go." Jane-Anne said as she placed her left hand on Hayley's shoulder at the side of her neck.

Hayley nodded as she sent a quick small smiled before turning and picking her jacket up before leaving the bar. Maybe now, after all these years of searching she would finally find what she was searching for.

Behind her, Jane-Anne shared a long look with her sister as she held a piece of the Werewolf's hair in her hand.

* * *

When she parks her car before the trees in front of her all Hayley can think is that the Bayou looks like any other Bayou she had ever seen; cold, dark and sinister. She wondered if Jane-Anne had been wrong, if the Werewolves who had once lived her however long ago had migrated to another area far away.

It wouldn't be the first time it had happened, she herself when she had joined a small Pack of Werewolves in the Mountains had moved around a lot. They hadn't stayed in one place long enough to become familiar with the locals, hadn't stayed long enough to draw any further attention.

Because to Triggered Werewolves, she had once had explained to her in her early days, staying in one place meant painting a target sign on yourself. Untriggered Werewolves didn't have to move, as long as they didn't kill anyone or mention the possibility of being a Werewolf no one looked too long to notice the dependencies that were apparent.

Most Werewolves, she had been informed, if they were to keep to one town always chose small Towns. Small, isolated, secluded Towns or Villages were there was only one way out and where the Werewolves, Triggered or otherwise, ruled the roost. They had jobs as Mayors, Police Officers, Teachers, Vets and Librarians. In those Towns she had been told, Werewolves reigned over their Kingdoms.

It was that information that made her pause as she looked at the Bayou. New Orleans was not a small Town, it was a City bursting with life and various personalities, nothing like what she had been told was a normal place for Werewolves to inhabit. New Orleans, she knew from various sources, was a place crowded by Vampires' and Witches'. Werewolves didn't even factor in.

So why had Jane-Anne told her that here, in the Bayou, she would find her answers she was looking for? What exactly was it about this Bayou that would answer her questions. How would she even know where to look. She hadn't looked at the map since she had left but she knows that the Bartender had only circled a area, she hadn't made dots to mark exact locations where, where her family might actually be.

Her mind jumps to the map and she picks it up from the passenger seat and unfolds it. Maybe she missed something when she was just scanning it. She ignores the smoke that seems to curl out from the trees absently putting it down to the cold weather. Biting her lip, she kept her gaze on the map focusing on the red circle, she didn't see any other marks, just the circle.

It was a second later when she senses that something isn't right, a smell is coming from the paper in her hands and Hayley can only watch stunned as the middle of the circle starts to turn brown and black and red. Fire, realizes, the paper is burning. With a startled, "What the...?" and a flinch she threw it out the window and took several breathes. Her hands quickly grasp the clutch as her eyes dart to the trees in front of her. With a movement of her hand she moves the car into reverse and pressed down on the pedal, only what she had expected didn't happened.

"Are you kidding me?" Hayley growled as the car stopped working and the back started to emit smoke. "Come on!" Her hand hits the steering wheel in frustration as she pushes the driver's door open, her left hand pulling out her phone as she stepped out of the car. Sighing as she glances down at the phone she begins to walk further away from the car as she holds her phone out in front of her. Of all the times to loose connection it had to be when she needed it.

It takes her a few seconds of walking further away from her car and a continuous glare before the connection symbol is fully connected. She pauses as she tries to remember the number she had taken a note of this morning before she dials it. "Hey, I'm looking for a tow service?" Hayley says into the phone as she placed her right hand on her waist and scanned the area.

Something was off. That she knew for sure, could feel it within her bones as her eyes warily scanned the bushes and trees around her.

Before anyone can answer her a sudden ringing sound starts to emit from the phone ans Hayley hisses in pain as she throws it to the ground and stamped a high heeled foot on it. The rustle of bushes behind her her turning around to see more then several dark figures emerging as the circled her, Hayley's head whipped around as her eyes turned amber and she growled in warning.

There was too many of them and she couldn't fight them off, she had met enough Witches to know they wouldn't attack her one by one. Neither was she strong enough that she would be able to withstand the pressure of the Witches attack if they joined together with one another. She hadn't lived long enough, hadn't faced enough Witches to get to the point where she could get out of this.

She was prepared to give a fight. Prepared to at least attempt to escape but she didn't get the chance. Her eyes were already closing as her body fell to the ground.

* * *

Klaus's eyes raked the sights of New Orleans from the Gallery roof as he took in a breath. He hadn't been here for so long, not since Mikeal had made him fled, and now the Town that had once been his own was now Marcel's. It hadn't changed much since he had last seen it, a lot more buildings, less fire, newer technology but he still could see what it had once looked like.

It wasn't surprising that he wanted it back.

"Evening Elijah," he said not turning around. He'd sensed the older male arriving on the roof the second his foot had landed on the concrete. He hadn't seen Elijah for a few days now, not since the male had shown up with the Cure and their younger sister in Mystic Falls after leaving behind his dearest Katerina. Tragic was how Klaus had seen the entire incident.

"Niklaus." Elijah greeted in his usual tone making Klaus slightly flinch back.

Klaus still didn't face his elder half-brother as he spoke. "What an entirely unwelcome surprise."

Elijah looked as if he was restraining himself from rolling his eyes at the youngest living male Mikealson. "And what an entirely unsurprising welcome. " He paused for a second, seemingly to contemplate what he would say next before deciding. "Come with me." It was an order, admittedly not as harsh as the ones Klaus had been sent numerous times by their Father but still, it was an order.

Klaus turned to face Elijah shook his head in response to the order. He'd never been fond of them and that level of fondness wasn't about to change any time soon. " I'm not going anywhere. Not till I find out who's conspiring against me."

"I believe I just found that out for you." The eldest of the living Mikealson's gestured for Klaus to follow him with his hand and Klaus mentally sighed as he regarded the other. Looks like he didn't have much of a choice, it was either following Elijah or going the long way about it.

Elijah it was.

* * *

Klaus and Elijah stood in one of the mausoleum and stared at the Witch in front of them. It was Sophie Deveraux, sister of Jane-Anne, the Witch that Klaus had witnessed being killed earlier on by Marcel.

Klaus was impressed by how she held herself. She didn't look anything like a sibling grieving for a sibling, not like he had... a black cloud fell over his thoughts as his mind drifted over to the touchy - in both reality and mentally - subject of Kol. Who's only crime had been wanting to stop a Monster walking the earth.

Sophie's tone was cold and haunted as she spoke, drawing him out of his depressing thoughts. he noticed that it was the only thing that betrayed the grief she still felt and that cut her with every step. "You know you're famous in this town? Witches tell bedtime stories about the powerful vampire Klaus."

" _Hybrid_ , now, Love." He interrupted, his tone indicating how insulted he felt. It had taken him over a thousand years just to unlock the part of him that had been stolen and locked away. He wasn't going to let anyone undermine it. Especially when he still was getting used to it. Apparently, it took more than a year to get used to it. "If you wish I could do some show and tell... although I'm sure it wouldn't end up well on your part."

"Niklaus!" A hissed word from Elijah told him that the oldest in the area would break his neck if he had too, to get him to listen.

She inclined her head, and repeated the sentence seeing the anger in his eyes and that she was walking on a thin line now. "Witches tell bedtime stories about the powerful _Hybrid_ Klaus. We know Marcel was nothing but an orphan street rat, until you made him what he is. And now he's out of control. He does what he wants, he kills who he wants. I'm gonna stop him, and you're gonna help me."

Klaus smiled an amused smile, one that told them that he was seconds away from leaving them, possibly in a state of death, he still felt insulted over her saying he was a Vampire.

In the corner of his right eye he noticed Elijah tense.

"Is this why you brought me here?" His eyes flickered around the mausoleum. Only he and his brother and the Witches were in the immediate vicinity, He paused when he heard another heart beat, this one more fast and hiding something. He pushed it to the back of this mind but kept a ear out for it.

It didn't fully make sense, they had allowed Katerina to find out about them, something that no normal Witch would do unless they had a plan. A plan that was able to adapt accordingly, since there was no way for them to know that she would tell him.

He wondered if they knew that he was always a step or more ahead of everyone who was a threat towards him or his siblings. He would be surprised if they didn't. "I don't believe it's that simple as a take over." He said at last, eyes settled on the woman that was acting as the leader. "If it was, you would be able to do it yourself." His eyes mentally narrowed when Sophie's eyes widened in slight surprise and wariness, the grief still visible. "You have enough Witches to be able to do a spell that would be to your advantage."

He was right then. There was more to this... _attempt_ to thwart Marcel then they wanted to admit.

"Hear her out." Elijah spoke up from beside Klaus, a reminder that not only was Elijah still here but that he - in Klaus's eyes, - took joy in the sway that Klaus allowed Elijah to have over his decisions. Elijah's brown eyes narrowed as his frustration made it's first appearance, a slight pang of sadness went through Klaus as he remembered another pair of brown eyes that had looked at him the exact same way before they died filled with pain and terror.

He was always like that, Klaus thought bitterly. Elijah always took on the role as the elder noble brother. And he portrayed it so well, that even the Doppelgängers - Katerina and Elena - thought he was the brother who could do no wrong, even when he had betrayed them more then once.

It sickened Klaus as much as he envied it. Elijah, like Marcel, held something he wanted. Only unlike the situation with Marcel he knew that he would never be able to get what the eldest of all his siblings had. Elijah had limitless amounts of patience that even when the subject was no in his favour he could still be polite. A contrast against _all_ his other younger siblings.

The only one that could compare to that patience was Finn... who had tried to kill them all.

But on another hand, it was Elijah (and Finn when he had been alive) who was more unhappy then Klaus. A fact that he took great joy in. Because even though Klaus had become hated by all his half-siblings it was him who lived life to the fullest. (Kol following after and Rebekah after him.) Not Elijah, who was so overcome by morals that when he did do something he wanted or had to do, he was overcome with sadness afterwards.

Klaus supposed it was rather like a novel, one filled with unfulfilled desires, missed opportunities and burnt out impulses. Klaus still didn't know if it was a bad one or a good one... he settled on interesting, historical and riddled with angst. It was quite sad that Elijah was the only one that didn't see it.

The other's couldn't even blame him. Well, not fully since he did have the habit of sticking daggers into them. Which, he did for good reasons... not that they saw it like that...

Outwardly Klaus rolled his blue eyes as he shot the older man a glare, a colour that he had inherited from his mother, along with his blonde-hair. All his other male half-siblings having brown hair, Rebekah being the only exception. And something that had only further spurned Mikeal on with his anger and rage. He wasn't going to listen to his brother preach anymore then he had to.

"I don't need to hear her out. I assure you, love, there is not a thing on this earth that will matter enough for me to waste even thirty more seconds of my time." His body that had originally been facing the Witches turned fully to Elijah. "Elijah, what madness is this?"

Klaus didn't see it but he knew that Sophie had smirked a smile that would have made Klaus want to bang his head against a wall several times, and that was if it didn't break on the first. "Bring her in," she ordered a few Witches who moved behind her and out of sight.

Her? He frowned as he turned back around, why would a female matter to him? It wasn't Katerina , he knew that she would never remain in the general area that he was in for more then a hour or two and was probably sharing a celebration with the Mystic Falls crew or at least the ones that liked her and she hadn't ruined the life of. It wasn't Rebekah, he was sure of that. But if these Witches were threatening the life of their sister it would explain the urgency that Elijah was showing. Perhaps it was Caroline. No, he mentally shook his head, she was still in Mystic Falls.

The heartbeat got closer as he mentally ran through the other not so likely options before he realized that the heartbeat was the hostage that was meant to change his mind. And unless it was Silas or two others he couldn't see how that would happen.

When the Hostage walked into the mausoleum he arched an eyebrow as confusion once again settled in. It wasn't anyone he had thought it would be, not even Rebekah or Katerina or Caroline.

Although to be fair, unless Katerina had been magically turned into a human again he would have left her to rot, even if _dear noble lovestruck_ Elijah asked him to help.

It was the 20 year old female Werewolf he had met in Mystic Falls, Hayley a voice in his head answered, her brown eyes on both he and Elijah as a few Witches trailed behind her. She didn't look as healthy or awake as she once had, he noticed. Her eyes filled with exhaustion and fear, but behind that he could see the defiance that had persuaded him not to kill her when she had been rude.

But there was also the slight fact that he knew he would be locked up more safely then a priceless jewel if he did, perhaps in a coffin... awake for all eternity and never talking to civilisation again. A fate far worse then his siblings when they had been daggered.

It made him sick just thinking about it.

"Klaus," she said after a few minutes of silence, her eyes warily flickering around the area, "you need to listen to them." Her eyes rested on Elijah as confusion flooded in. "And who is that guy?" It was quite rude and not at all the type of question that you would ask a man dressed like Elijah was.

Normally Klaus would have dismissed her request with ease, but something held him back, and whatever it was, it wasn't just his curiosity over the situation. He decided to answer her question, "my older half-brother Elijah." He was deeply amused, she didn't know who Elijah was and at this point in time, he was the only one she knew and could trust.

Oh, how the mighty had fallen, he thought vindictively, as he tried to suppress his glee.

His blue orbs rested on Sophie as he gestured for her to continue. It was about time he got to learn why they had wanted him to return. And he had the feeling it wasn't as simple as he wanted it too be. After all, if it was why would the Werewolf be there? As far as he was concerned, she had nothing to do with him.

When she started to speak, Klaus knew instantly what she said wasn't going to be easy or normal even for him. And it was mainly because her eyes were back to normal, she didn't fear him and probably was ignoring all the danger signs going off in her head, and although grief was in them there was a light of triumph. "Marcel may be able to keep us from practising real magic in this town, but as keepers of the balance we still know when nature has cooked up something new. For example, I have a special gift... of sensing when a girl is pregnant."

The earlier amusement fled his face as he stared blankly at the Deveraux. "What?" Was his intelligent reply. Elijah, who had been silent and unmoving before made a slight move, Klaus could already tell that Elijah had moved his body so that if Klaus tried anything he would be able to step in. He fought back the need to scoff, apparently his elder half-brother had forgotten about the Witches in front of them.

Who, in the current situation, if Klaus was reading it right, held all the cards.

He really didn't like that at all.

Hayley made a small sound of agreement with Klaus in the back of her throat as Sophie ignored her. "My sister gave her life to perform the spell she needed to confirm this pregnancy and the species of the father." Klaus blinked owlishly while Elijah once again tensed. Really, Klaus thought almost making him miss the next sentence, what was it with Elijah and tensing? Was it a new hobby? Or was it to see how many time he could do it before Klaus got angry and killed someone? "The father of her child is a Hybrid. Half-Werewolf, Half-Vampire."

Klaus stared and stared and stared. Eyes gone blank as he blinked, once, twice, more then twice. His shocked silence lasted for more then a few minutes and even when he did regain his capability to think all he could say was a extremely weak: "What?"

He didn't even notice the jolt of surprise Hayley's heart gave at the last part of the sentence as he stared at the witch. "You're a Hybrid, Klaus." She said at few minutes later having decided that he had regained enough composure to hear the rest without fainting, which - not that he would ever admit it out loud to anyone that is - he felt like doing. "Half-Vampire. Half-Werewolf. Vampire's can't procreate but a Werewolf can." He was still silent, his mind having crashed a few minutes ago. "You were born a Werewolf before you became a Vampire, because of this, the Werewolf side is more dominate. One of the sides of this is the ability to procreate."

It finally made sense why she was here, though. Klaus thought as he cleared his mind and began to think it all through, a part of him hoping he wouldn't have a heart attack because of it.

The Witches - unknown if more then them - wanted Marcel's reign to stop but didn't know how too go about it, at least not until Sophie - who could apparently sense pregnancy's - sensed Hayley was pregnant and not with the normal Werewolf baby. Jane-Anne had then cast a spell to confirm what they had thought and died later on by Marcel's hand for casting a spell, Marcel hadn't even wanted or needed to know which one they had done.

He had the basics, now he had to go into the other parts, mainly the biggest and the most dangerous one.

He wasn't the one who slept with the female Werewolf and knocked her up.

In fact he hadn't even seen her since she had left Mystic Falls in December after it had turned out both she and the shady professor had been behind the massacre of the Hybrids and tricking the Lockwood. Not that he cared about the latter, but he would admit he was still bitter over the former.

He had tried so hard, had gotten so far and then she with the help of that... _boy_ ruined it all.

But he also had an idea who the father was. And it was all down to the fact that scent's took a while to fade, and Hayley, when she had first arrived in Mystic Falls, had been covered with it. Even now, more then a few weeks since she had lain in the arms of her lover she still had his scent imprinted on her.

A scent that Klaus knew as well as his own.

And one he was shocked that Elijah hadn't discovered or realized, since he had over the centuries pointed it out when Klaus was covered with it.

And if he was correct... what he was about to do next would save countless lives. And not just his own.

What was he saying? Of course he was correct.

"And if the baby is in fact mine," he caught the confused expressions both Elijah and Hayley were sending him. Elijah's one was filled more with relief but then again, Elijah no doubt thought this child was his and that he was taking responsibility. But he didn't care about Elijah at that moment, only going with his plan mattered. He gave Hayley a look that told her to play along with what he was going to say and that he would explain all later on, when the others all blinked and Elijah's gaze turned elsewhere for a second. "Why would I help you?"

The Witch's eyes turned cold and a smirk appeared on her face. "Because of Jane-Anne's sacrifice, the lives of this girl and her baby are now controlled by us. We can keep them save. Or we can kill them. If you don't help us take down Marcel, so help me, Hayley won't live long enough to see her first maternity dress."

Klaus's eyes widened as Elijah tensed beside him. "Wait. What?" The Werewolf cried out, her heart beating even more faster than before. He didn't blame her. If he had been in the same situation his heart would be like a bird's wings when they flapped frantically. Not that his heart would ever beat that fast. That was a Mortal thing.

"You would dare threaten an _Original_?" He and Elijah asked at the same time, they hadn't spoke at the same time in years, after finding their voice and getting over their shock. Unknown to the others, - apart from the Werewolf who may or may not know, Klaus was betting on that she didn't, - there was more to that sentence then meets the eye.

Sophie shrugged nonchalantly, "I have nothing to lose." And that, he thought, was what made what she was doing so tragic and sad. She said she had nothing to lose, she was wrong. She did have something to lose, everyone did, she just didn't know what it was. And the father of the unborn child she held the life in her hands of, would find out what it was and would use it against her if he had to.

It was the sort of thing that man did without a second thought.

"Fine. I'll help, but the girl and the child gets to stay with me." He compromised ignoring the startled glances Elijah was throwing him. Elijah wouldn't understand, probably not for some time, and that was if he ever found out.

The Witches had no idea what they had just walked into or started.

But then again, why would they? It went back over a thousand years.

* * *

"Did you, by any chance, happen to be in the mountains, a month or two ago?" Klaus asked before the person he called could speak.

"Why, hello Niklaus. We are both doing fine and yes," a equally male British accent answered, the tone amused and not insulted or offended at being asked a question before a greeting. "I did. How did you find out?" Then again, Klaus doubted the male even had the ability to get angry any more. Immortality tended to do that to one, whittle away at what Humanity was left.

Klaus glanced around once more, eyes scanning the area to make sure Marcel hadn't sent spies after him like before. It was annoying and a waste of time, add in the fact that if he killed them Marcel wouldn't trust him, made him even more annoyed at them. "And enjoyed the company of a certain female Werewolf by the name of Hayley?"

The answer didn't come for a few minutes but when it did Klaus could hear a slight wary side to it. "I indeed spent a enjoyable night in the company of Miss. Marshall." Klaus rolled his eyes, the other male was just mocking him with his over-formal dramatics. "Is there an issue?"

"She tried to kill me." Klaus told him bluntly because really, that was enough of a answer before continuing on with the actual bombshell. "And you left behind more then a memory. She's pregnant with a child." He let that sink in before carrying on. "Yours if you want to be more precise."

"She must have slept with another man," was the denial Klaus had expected.

"A Witch did a spell, to not only confirm that the baby was the one they were looking for but also to find out the species of the father." Klaus said as he fought back a yawn, it was night and unlike most people in New Orleans, Klaus did in fact sleep. "The father was a Hybrid, and I didn't sleep with her. Neither did the Lockwood boy, now I think about it." The other male was still silent but Klaus could hear a slight rumbling sound, "but if I remember correctly, from something the Lockwood said and the scent she was often covered in, the Werewolf isn't just a fling. She's your Lover. For quite some time, if you look close enough, she still has your scent imprinted on her."

"Did you say Witches?"

Klaus shrugged. "I'll explain when you arrive."

* * *

"Why did you lie?" Hayley asked later the next morning as Klaus helped her unpack some of her things in a room in Elijah's Mansion. She wouldn't be staying in the house for long, not when _they_ arrived.

Klaus sighed, before shrugging. "He'll tell you when he arrives."

"Wait. _He's_ coming back?" Her tone sounded incredulous but the slight beat of her heart told him what she really thought. She was happy at the thought of the man coming back.

He sent her an odd look. "You are carrying his child. Of course he'll come." He paused as he heard Elijah's car driving up the driveway. His eyes narrowed. "Just remember that until he comes, _no one else_ can know that your child is not mine. To everyone else, we spent a night together."

She nodded after frowning. It looks like the father hadn't told her just how he knew Klaus, only that he knew him, and it had been better that way. Until she got pregnant.

He thought back a chuckle as he thought it over.

They had always joked Klaus would be the one to do something irresponsible, but it turned out _he_ had done the most irresponsible thing any of them would have thought possible.

Klaus loved the irony.


	2. Chapter 2

**And so the 2nd Chapter is finally here. Sorry for not updating quicker but I wasn't able. I hope you like it.**

 **Chapter 2**

Her steps are cautious and sound of them alone, without adding the two heartbeats currently beating side by side in her body, makes the powerful Hybrid glare at the words in front of him. He had been reading a book, one of the many he had collected over the years, but it hadn't held any of his interest.

Instead, regretfully in his opinion because he knew this book was interesting he had read it before, his mind had been whirling with what he had found out. With what new information had been granted to him by the Witches as if they held all the power in their hands and he was there to only dance to their wishes.

He supposes in this instance that isn't that far from the truth.

A first.

The first piece of news he had learnt, he'd known it before the Witch had confirmed it he realises it now, he had heard from the locals. He had heard from the Vampires who inhabited the city and called it their own. He had heard it several times over the years by those that had visited and returned to his side.

He had heard it but had not listened.

Marcel, was alive.

The news, unlike most of the versions he had learned over the decades about those he knew that should be dead but weren't, wasn't horrible. It didn't fill him with a sense of anger or hatred or annoyance that threatened the lives of those around him.

It was the opposite.

Niklaus Mikealson, killer of many and widely seen as an abomination, was relieved. The boy he had raised as his son, no, - not the boy he had raised. _His son_ , was alive.

The boy he had given a name to. The boy who had seen him as a father and he had seen as a son. The boy who he had raised in his image. The boy who had grown into a man that his sister had all too soon fallen for. The boy's whose heartbeat he had listened to and heard each night as he had fallen asleep.

The man who he was sure had died in the flames that his Father had made in an effort to kill him.

Which, like all the times before the man had attempted, hadn't worked.

He hadn't been able to believe it when the Witch had first spoken the words but now he could and the relief he felt was a powerful, wave like emotion that threatened to swallow him whole. He hadn't felt like this for a while, not since he had last saw his Mother who had promised him a family once more.

The comparison to his emotions back then doesn't inspire feelings of security. He remembered what happened the last time he had thought his family was whole for the first time in a thousand years, - it had turned out to be no more than a delusion that had been cruelly ripped from him.

Ripped from them all.

Normally this revelation would have made him change his plans and rush to the boy. Make his consider the possibility of them joining forces against a common foes and rebuilding the bridges that were sure to have been burned between them in the years they had not seen one another.

And he would have. Only there were two problems with them. Quite big problems if he were to be honest with himself.

Problem number one was that Marcel was the King of New Orleans.

The King who had risen up in the place left behind by him and his family. The King that the Witches wanted to end the reign of. The King that Klaus was being blackmailed into ending the reign of. The King of the Kingdom that Klaus had built and, kind of, wanted to reclaim as his own.

None of those plans he knew Marcel would take kindly to and help him with. Self-Sabotage had never been something Klaus had preached at any point in his life nor was he a believer in it. He didn't imagine Marcel, unless he had picked it up from his time spent by the sides of Klaus's siblings, had learned it either.

Problem number two was the Witches.

Because they were, - no matter the situation, even if they weren't directly involved, - always a problem. He'd come across this knowledge within his first few years of life before his Mother had shown him how true the fact was. Had heard both the locals of the small Village Mystic Falls had once been and his Father grumble in annoyance about his Mother behind her back.

Although that stopped his Father from complaining to his Mother's face whenever Mikeal had felt maligned in the greater scheme of things. An occurrence which had happened with not that surprising regularity now Klaus knew of his true born heritage.

Killing the Lover, and father of the illegitimate child paraded as your own, of your Wife didn't seem like the best way to keep a marriage healthy. But that was just from his point of view, he wouldn't know, he'd never been married.

Rebekah, out of all of them, might know though. She'd almost been married several times over the Centuries for all she had never gotten to the point of actually walking down the Aisle towards her One-True-Love.

In no particular part due to Klaus's repeated actions when it came to her numerous suitors.

The Witches were a big problem but the biggest problem, not that he would dare speak it out loud, was the method of the Blackmail they had chosen. A child, an unborn child, sired by a Hybrid with a Werewolf, was their chosen and poison and Klaus couldn't help but grimace every time he thought the words.

A child, - a small, breathing, baby with a strong beating heart if the current sound of its heart was taken into consideration, - would be born in several months. Months that Klaus knew from experience would pass all too quickly and without much delay.

And Klaus, no matter what others might say, would be the main one in charge of its health and safety. The health and safety of both the unborn child and the Mother that currently housed it within her body.

Health and Safety that were currently being threatened by a group of delusional Witches who wanted the Reign of Marcel to come to an end.

Soon.

* * *

Hayley finds Klaus in the study.

If it is actually his study or just one he commandeered for himself during their temporary, - in Klaus's words, - stay, she didn't know. Didn't know if she actually wanted to know who the Study had belonged to before Klaus had made it his own.

Her footsteps weren't that loud but she knows from prior experience with Vampires and other Supernatural Creatures, that the Hybrid would have heard her the minute she had stepped out of the room that had been designated hers. He'd also have heard the creaking of the window had she decided to attempt the escape she had been fantasising about.

The Mansion, which Klaus seemed to be under the impression was a House, was large and spacious. With wide white corridors with a red carpet, - to hide the blood she suspected, - and a gleaming marble staircase that looked far more like something she expected in a movie than it did real life.

She entertained thoughts of the Mansion having once belonged to a Royal Family but had squashed that idea when she reminded herself that New Orleans didn't have a Royal Family. Unless, from what she had overheard from the Witches when she had been held against her will, you counted the Mikealsons.

Fearsome, terror inspiring, bloodthirsty Vampires who had once ruled the roost that was New Orleans.

The Werewolf wasn't sure if she had imagined the reverence that a few of the tones had held when speaking of the Good Ol' Days where Witches, apparently, had freedom to do as they wished within reason.

The idea, of a Royal Family, had been banished when memories of the Grand Mansion Klaus had made for his reunited Family back in Mystic Falls had sprung to mind. Tyler had let her in a few times, when Klaus had been nowhere near or around, and had shown her around at her behest.

It, like the one she was currently in, had been Grand in a way that few Architects of the modern day would have been able to achieve on the same scale. The Mikealsons, or Klaus at least, seemed to like living in Luxury and comfort and weren't above displaying their wealth and, possibly perceived, importance to the masses who saw them.

The ball they had thrown a while back according to Shane, who had somehow managed to score an invite, had been old fashioned and more a display of their immense power than anything else. A means of intimidation and showing solidarity in the face of the unknown and, in some occasions, inconveniently annoying foes.

Or at least that was what she had been told. Whether it held any truth to it she didn't know but since even _he_ , when she had made a comment along the same lines, had agreed and stated the exact same thing she was more inclined to believe it.

 _He_ , after all, had yet to lead her wrong.

While, that wasn't really the truth, now was it? He had lead her wrong, not directly but indirectly since his suggestion to where those she looked for had been wrong and had led to her being kidnapped by a bunch of Witches.

Witches who had revealed she was pregnant.

Pregnant with the child of a _Hybrid_.

News she had felt they had taken too much joy in revealing to her. Apparently, from what little she had managed to gather, they thought her stupid to fall into the same bed as the man she had tricked into killing his Hybrid Army. The same Hybrid Army he had spent decades upon decades dreaming of.

Definitely not her when she was sober.

When she was drunk though? Well, that was an entirely different matter.

One of the Witches, Jane-Anne, who she hadn't met, had done a spell to test the paternity of Hayley's child before she had died. The paternity Spell had revealed the Father a Hybrid, and the Witches only knowing of one Hybrid, - Klaus, - had jumped to the conclusion he was the Father.

She had to admit, even if she didn't want to, that compared to other reaches in logic she had heard they had come to, it was wasn't that out of reality in comparison.

How exactly they had found out about her pregnancy she wasn't quite sure but she believed it had something to do with Jane-Anne's sister Sophie. Sophie the Pregnancy-Seeing Witch.

All in all, between the two sister Witches, it led up to her current dilemma. A dilemma she didn't know how she would get out of. She didn't even know everything that was going on and the factors that had led to her becoming the, apparent, weakness in the armour that was Klaus Mikealson.

It certainly wasn't how she expected things to go.

Klaus. Klaus was the only thing she could use in this situation. He knew what was going on, or seemed to at most, and would be able to explain it to her. Whether he would explain everything to her, word by word, sentence by sentence, syllable by syllable she didn't know.

He, compared to Elijah his older half-brother who he wasn't too happy with at the moment, was the only one she knew in the Mansion. The only one she could ask.

He wasn't exactly happy with her, didn't have the best view when it came to her after she helped lead him to killing most of his Hybrids, bur she knew he wouldn't lie to her. Even Tyler, for all the dark haired male loathed his blonde haired sire, admitted that through clenched teeth and glaring eyes.

He omitted complete truths and spun half-truths, artfully dodging bullets of complete truths unless it suited him but he would never speak outright lies.

To Klaus, according to _him_ who had turned out to somehow be an expert in certain areas, as old as he was, lies had lost their sway on him. He'd listen to lies spoken by others but he would not entertain them himself. He didn't see the point in them any longer.

That, of course, didn't stop him from partaking in a lie every so often to create some mischief and chaos around him.

Immortality, it seemed, burnt away not only their Humanity but turned them into creatures of Honesty. How odd she thought.

"Are you going to stand at the doorway all night?"

A voice breaks through her thoughts and Hayley blinks and finds herself staring into narrowed blue eyes. Perhaps, she thinks as she steps past him into the study, an impatience had joined the honesty and immortality.

That, like the Honesty, was odd. He had forever, what did it matter if she stayed outside the door all night?

* * *

The plan, when it had first been laid out in front of her by her sister, had seemed like a good idea. All the t's were crossed and the i's were dotted, but now, as she looked down at the notepad lying innocently on the table in front of her. The dark lines of her written words contrasting against the white of the paper. It didn't seem like much of a good plan.

Then again, when Jane-Anne had been preaching it she had used words instead of writing to convince Sophie that it was a good idea. Sophie was beginning to beg to differ.

Getting the Werewolf once she had told her about the Bayou and suggested that what she wanted to find might be there had been easy. So had been testing the paternity of the child, well, besides Jane-Anne dying. So had convincing the Originals to help them against Marcel.

But it was the things that came afterwards that were making her pause. The questions that made her frown down at the notepad and wonder what exactly her sister had been thinking. Because this... this wasn't going to be as easy as her sister had made it sound.

For one, they might have Klaus on there side, largely due to the spell Jane-Anne had cast that had linked her to the child, but what would come after?

What would come when Marcel was defeated and the Witches would once more be able to cast spells as they wished?

The Mikealsons, for all the Family Drama that she had heard was in abundance to this day, were all through various ways a crafty bunch that laughed at those who tried to bind them in one place. She'd grown up with stories of the days when they had ruled the Quarter.

Heard stories of how they had killed, murdered, massacred, slaughtered, tricked and deceived all those who stood in their paths. Those that had gone against them, those who had sided with their foes, those who had made a choice and in most of the cases lived to regret it.

The Originals were not kind. They did not follow the same rules that they followed, they believed themselves above those who did not share their common link of blood.

The Deveraux Witch would die, she knew that, had known it since she was a child. It was one of the first lessons she had been taught after all; all things must die. But whether she would die at the hands of the Mikealsons, the hands of Marcel, the hands of her fellow Witches... she didn't know.

The clock by her side strikes twelve and she wonders if she wanted to know or if it was better that she remained in blissful ignorance of her eventual fate.

Bed, she thinks at last. It was time for bed.

* * *

Elijah hasn't been in New Orleans for years, just as his wayward younger siblings hadn't been, but he feels as he walks down the familiar streets that it hasn't changed.

In some ways barring the new stores that opened, the various new buildings that had been created, the buildings that had long since been abandoned it hadn't changed. In other ways, unrecognisable faces, the familiar streets with a few new names attached, parks that had been created in an image of other parks around the Country, it had.

This, Elijah thinks, is the curse of Immortality. The curse that his entire family, to varying degrees, had come to realise centuries before. The curse he was constantly aware of but couldn't stop.

Time for them had frozen but it still ticked on. People died, faces changed, the world evolved as new things were created and new laws where put in place but they, as dead as they were, stood still and could never change.

Rebekah, his sweet younger sister, when he had first spoken the thought out loud, had scoffed at him. Rolled her blue eyes and glanced out the window with a look that had reminded him so much of their Mother that he had had to blink to remind himself it was Rebekah.

She'd told him that he was thinking too much, that he spent too much time immersed in books and captive to his thoughts. Thoughts, which she had added, would never do them any good to think of.

She'd understood him though, perhaps thought the same but hadn't been able to voice the words like he had. Her eyes had always been the most expressive of them all, always more the doors and window to a soul that had never quite been able to hide. Her heart, to this day even with what their half-brother had put her through, still remained on her sleeve and easily given.

Maybe they were caught in a never ending spiral of things that changed but not enough. Perhaps they would always be trapped, maybe it had gotten to the point where they could no longer turn their heads the other way if they bury them in the sand.

Niklaus, through some loophole of Nature that their Mother hadn't been able to foresee even with her immense power, had given them a chance. They wouldn't see it that way. Elijah knew that, had come to realize it within the first few times things like this had happened.

They had been gifted more than a dozen times by the Heavens for all they were Cursed. Yet his siblings, as did he himself, run the other way whenever those occasions of redemption had appeared. They'd seen the gift as a curse and hadn't been able to see it any other way.

A lesson learnt from their Mother no doubt.

Elijah was sure of it.

He'd allowed this had happen for a thousand years. Gracefully, without arguing stepped aside while his family had run from the gifts that could offer them salvation.

Only this wasn't going to happen this time. This child, like all those other times, was a gift, a chance and there was no way Elijah would step aside and allow his family, what little was left of it, to ignore it once more.

Besides, he'd always been persuasive when he wanted to be.


End file.
